Iga Swiatek dropped the first set against
Aryna Sabalenka but she battled back to win it in three sets 3-6 6-1 6-4.
Iga Swiatek did not lose to Arny Sabalenka this year having beaten the Belarusian in all three matches they played this year. One of those was a final and even that one wasn't close as she was yet to drop a set against her. She did just that to start this one but rallied in time to win in three sets:
"I felt a huge difference between the first set and the last two. I'm pretty happy that I
got my level of energy up a little bit. Aryna made it difficult today, for sure. I felt like she was serving
pretty solid. It was hard to come back in the third, but I'm pretty
happy that I did."
Speaking further on the match, Swiatek noted how losing the first set actually helped her:
"I feel like Aryna served pretty well today, better than on our other
matches. [Losing the first two games of the third set]
kind of helped me to get back on ground and realize I still have a lot
of expectations even though the second set was pretty dominant. I just went all in, you know. This time it actually gave me a lot,
and the balls that I played went in. I'm pretty happy because I feel
like we were both kind of sometimes risking, because the pace was
really, really high."